


Four Times Rey Did it Differently and One Time She Didn't

by saphsaq



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: 4 + 1 Times, Church of the Force (Star Wars), Gen, Jakku, Kyber Crystals, Millenium Falkon, R'iia, Starkiller Base, Starship Graveyard (Star Wars), Takodana (Star Wars), luggabeast (Star Wars)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2018-11-02
Packaged: 2019-02-17 08:07:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13072698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saphsaq/pseuds/saphsaq
Summary: This is not the ordinary five-times story, this is about the places where The Force Awakens IMHO failed to give its leading character the right scenes and more than a two-dimensional background. Don't get me wrong! TFA is great in the sense that it looks so incredible Star Wars it makes you feel back home like Han Solo said. But I'm a Sith. I'm obsessed with failure. BTW, I watched TFA not before TLJ came to the cinemas. Life decisions.Caveat for the cautious reader: I'm not a native speaker and this text isn't betaed by one.





	1. Jakku

**Author's Note:**

> The first instance where TFA left something to desire are the opening scenes. The dark form of a Star Destroyer blotting out the sight of Jakku and the callous raid of Tuanul in chase of a bit of information is artfully invoking ANH's opening scenes—and TPM's as well. A proper start for the new trilogy! Yet I would have preferred TFA to start with a pan shot over Jakku's junkyard. The wreckage of the Galactic Civil War is not only a powerful image—and actually the inversion of the previous opening scenes. It also would have set place and tone for the sequel of the saga: the Empire is defeated, but a lot of issues not dealt with remain. And the people the post-Empire Republic eking out a living with scavenging these remnants. One of them Rey.

The dunes of Jakku stretched like a softly rolling, pastel-coloured sea, wave after wave towards an indefinite horizon where the powdery sand mixed with the powdery light of the desert planet's sky. From her vantage point, high at the flank of a derelict Star Destroyer, the enormous wrecks in the Starship Graveyard looked like small islands in this vastness. Some days Rey imagined the dunes to be real water and the wrecks to become unmoored, sailing away with her through the heat of the day into a cooler night, where a starry sky was mirrored by the sea. Sailing, carefree sailing star-dappled waves. The moment it felt like leaving Jakku and truly cruising between the stars Rey always terminated her daydreams. She was in this place since almost 20 years. She would stay 200 more if necessary. One day, when her parents perhaps would come back, they should find her.

Rey reached for her protection against sun or sand, a threadbare headscarf. Layer for layer she carefully removed and dusted it before attaching the cloth like a sash. By the end of the day she should have collected enough scraps to peddle for a new one if she cut back a bit on her meal today. Far beyond she could see tiny dark dots, other scavengers disembowelling the remnants of the final battle between Old Empire and New Republic like she did. In the last days there had been rumours of military ships amassing in the orbit around Jakku. If that meant new additions to the Starship Graveyard she wouldn't mind. After decades the wrecks had become mere empty hulls, and hard to harvest.

Rey climbed through a hole in a structure which had once been a turret for an ion cannon. Not much to find here—but water. Before doing serious business she would bottle the dew the previous night had left. The places it tasted best where the places the metal was sanded clear and smooth by Jakku's desert storms. The panelling her second collector was connected to appeared a bit off when she touched it. Automatically Rey reached for her tool belt. After she had pried open the crack and rummaged the hollow beyond it she held a small heap of shiny circuits in her hand. Today felt like it would be a good day. Not just Kuat-good, but Phylon-good. Or even Sienar-good! The difference between a meagre ration and a sumptuous laid table. And a bath.


	2. Jakku Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The second scene needing some tweaking IMHO is the one Rey discovers BB-8. Watching the scene it's hard to figure out how Rey talked the Teedo in surrendering the astromech droid to her. And why she wanted it in the first place! AFAIK even the novelization does not clear up this issue since it fails to give a translation of their dispute in teedospeak. One can only infer from the following talk between Rey and BB-8 that she claimed the droid because the Teedo is a foul-mouthed and uncivilized specimen. How much sense that makes you can decide for yourself. I have something else to suggest: per canon Rey discovers her Force sensitivity first during the interrogation by Kylo Ren on the Starkiller Base. But this scene here would've been a better place to hint her abilities. Especially when you take into account the (new old) explanation of the Force given in TLJ: a ubiquitous field the sensitive can learn how to tap.

Teedo knew he had made a mistake. "The Rey!" he gobbled. "Hello and goodbye, the Rey. I'm in a hurry!" 

"You'd better taken the common road when in a hurry, Teedo." She didn't exactly stand in the way of the diminutive reptiloid on his ironclad luggabeast, but rider and mount had stopped so hastily, it raised puffs of pastel dirt from the hard surface of the desert track. Rey let travel her eyes over the flabby bags and nets, telling of an aborted harvest in the Ships Graveyard. Only one net was bulging from the form it contained. It was an astromech droid, one of those spherical BB units, with a lot of white and orange on its coat. A good reason to call it a day and hurry to the Niima Outpost. 

The Teedo caught her gaze. "The Teedo has nothing of value for the Rey!" 

Mutely the droid trained its sensors at her as if gauging her intentions. Rey wondered why it didn't say something, because actually it had been its shrill beeps what had grabbed her attraction. Or had they…? "You have." 

"Nooo!" shrieked the Teedo, shaking his ion spear. 

Involuntarily Rey gripped her quarterstaff harder. Its insulation was new and strong. "You know R'iia's rules. Scavengers coming from the Starship Graveyard and cross your territory shall pay a toll. Travellers who go to the Sinking Fields you should give instead. You are a scavenger and you come from Starship Graveyard." 

"But the Tedoo did pay already!" 

The luggabeast tilted its box-shaped head slightly as if leering backwards and questioning its riders logic, and also the BB unit swivelled its sensors. Rey however remembered the incident a couple of weeks ago when she had picked up another Teedo in the same place, on the old track two dunes away from her dwelling. With the uncanny telepathic connection of their species this one had channelled the incident and, due to their lack of individuality, did considering it as happened to himself. Yet, even if the Teedo possessed no sense of individuality, one for time they had: "New day, new pay," she heard herself saying hoarsely. 

The Tedoo's small shoulders sagged: "The Rey can have anything... Everything! Here," he tapped in a flurry with his spear against several of the saddle bags, making its mount groan confused. "But not that droid." 

The last line he had spoken flatly and the thought that the Teedo needed the windfall from selling the droid's parts as bitterly as every other scavenger on Jakku choked Rey. She would have taken anything! Just something to honour the custom... But she couldn't. She must have the droid. It was the same urgency like she felt when thinking of her parents – she couldn't leave Jakku or she would miss them when they perhaps came back. Rey reached for her tool belt. Her gaze lingered at the horizon, where miles away, in the Kelvin Ravine old man Tekka's village was. Some day, when she had brought it over herself to open up about the wait for her parents, he had watched her with this water-clear eyes of him for a long time before he spoke: "When it feels this way, you have to." 

Wordless Rey approached the Teedo on his luggabeast and began to hack with her heavy knife at the fastenings of the net. "You'll find another one. The day is young." The moment the droid fell on the ground and immediately started to whistle and beep happily she already regretted her callous words. 

The Teedo spurred his luggabeast. "May X'us'R'iia eat your skin!" 

Rey felt strangely relived, yet at the same time exhausted and ashamed, and to cover that she bend to the droid rolling at her side through the sand. "That's just Teedo—he wants you for parts. He's no respect for anyone."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last line Rey is speaking is a direct quote from the movie.


	3. Takodana

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maybe I'm spoiled by the rich and distinctive visual language Star Wars commands. Maybe. But, one of the most disappointing choices for a TFA setting IMHO is the one for Maz Kanata's sanctuary. At first look Takodana is splendid, and you feel with Rey, when she marvels how much green is in the galaxy. Yet then, you realise it's a clone of the Naboo Lake Country. I know, the Takodana scenes have been filmed in [Cumbria](https://keswick-launch.co.uk/explore/listing/star-wars/) and not around the [Lago di Como](http://www.starwars.com/news/galactic-backpacking-part-2-visiting-real-world-naboo)! But do deeper woods and only a single artful castle in display, set Takodana, the watering hole for pirates and smugglers in times of civil war, apart from the peaceful and sophisticated Naboo of the Old Republic? That also the history of Takodana as a place of a battle between Jedi and Sith is not really apparent in TLJ is just the icing on the cake.

"Is this... rain?" Rey held out her hands like a bowl. They filled fast, brimming over. Half shocked, half intoxicated by the abundance she opened her fingers, let the water go, only to hold out her hands again, to catch some more.

Finn, standing at her side, stuck warily his head out from under the protection against the downpour the Millennium Falcon's wide form provided. "Yes, I think that's what it says its name is." Stepping back fast and wiping the water off his face he grinned at Rey. "Can you hear it?" he asked in a hushed voice. Rey nodded, now grinning too. The landing pad was surrounded by translucent walls. Behind them the lake and the grey edifice the Falcon had passed during approach were just an idea, even the nearby woods appeared only a tad more solid. The copious amounts of water however made them animatedly whisper. When a gust of wind ruffled the treetops the noise became a chatter. 

"If you wonder how to take some of the stuff with you," chuckled Finn when watching Rey pouring now water from one hand into the other, "you could use these plants over there." He pointed to a group of red and green netted pitchers, growing slenderly at the foot of a tree. 

The grey-haired man, standing at the upper end of the Millennium Falcon's ramp stirred. "Let them have this moment, Han," growled the Wookiee at his side under his breath. "They're still kids." 

"Yes, Chewie... yes, still a kid," responded Han and patted appeasing his copilot's arm. Then he cleared his throat, marching with steady steps down the ramp. "That's a Sith Trumpet. Wouldn't touch it even with a stick." Finn looked uneasy and tugged at the collar of his flight jacket as if it suddenly was too tight. Rey opened her mouth, regarding the old smuggler rather curious. But Han continued solemnly: "That's what I meant with all of it is true. The Force. The Jedi. And the... Sith." Abruptly he turned his head, gauging the clouds. "We better hurry up, before the next weather front comes!" 

The curtain of rain moved away over the lake, revealing a building rising from the dull metal of the water surface like a rocky head, grey and ancient and ending in sky-scrapping spires. Time and weather had smoothed the dressing of its stones. But it hadn't succeeded in washing out the lively colours of the countless buntings decorating it. Rey noticed that when crossing the castle-like building's front court. She decided she wanted to bring back something so bright and shining to Jakku.


	4. Starkiller Base

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rey's interrogation by Kylo Ren in the Starkiller Base is a crucial scene of TFA. Perhaps **the** crucial scene. Here the movie actually shows us Rey's awakening to her powers, a precarious balance at the thin line between use and abuse, Light and Dark Side. And we witness the pathetic weakness of Kylo Ren—without betraying his much more refined and stronger grasp of the Force compared with Rey's I should add. Eventually we get an idea of the strange rapport the two have—the people as well as the two sides of the Force. Yet the setting is questionable, the dialogue is awkward, and, I'm afraid, the whole scene misses its mark. Not the least because of its **visibility**. Leia's torture by Darth Vader in ANH is much more effective in terms of storytelling and movie making, because we only catch glimpses of it. Now, I suppose we have to do with what we have, even if it's just a [cat-litter box](http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/star-wars-the-force-awakens-jj-abrams-kylo-ren-table-of-ashes-cat-litter-rey-interrogation-scene-a6970771.html)...

Rey was laying again in the generator pit of the star destroyer. Fallen from a daydream of sailing an ocean with star-dappled waves by the shortcut of the power cells in her home-made speeder. She had checked them twice—no, trice! But after that never again listened to them. Now she was held down by the bulky form of her broken speeder in darkness and anguish and pain. Cold sweat and blood. And... a monotonous hum. Perhaps a last sound power cell of her speeder? Her will to live reared up again—with a jolt Rey woke up. 

The monotonous hum stayed. And so did the darkness—albeit it had withdrawn from the corners of the room and aggregated into the form of the black masked warrior who had hunted her in the woods of Takodana. He was kneeling in front of her. He had to if he wanted to be at eye level, since he was tall and she, half sitting, half laying, restrained on a rack of metal. Its surface was clean and shiny, but to Rey this shine suddenly tasted of blood. The blood of someone else. Of someone tortured before her. "Where am I?" 

Maybe it were the impersonal electronic circuits in the speaker of the helmet, but the voice of the dark figure in front of her held no derision. Yet neither did it sound inviting: "You're my guest." 

Whatever this 'guest-house' was, the monotonous hum Rey felt reverberating through its walls, through every molecule of its carefully scrubbed air wasn't that of a single power cell. It hinted something bigger. Bigger even as the engine of the Millennium Falcon. "Where are the others?" 

"Do you mean the murderers... traitors, and thieves you call friends? You'll be relieved to hear I have no idea." Again the voice coming from the speaker sounded oddly bereft of emotions, as if the insults had no real meaning to its owner. It was the short pause before the last line, that conveyed something like astonishment. "You still want to kill me." 

"That happens when you're being hunted by a creature in a mask." Her quick retort left Rey wondering too. Why had this line presented itself as the appropriate reply? The mask was the same as a stormtrooper's helmet to her. It spelled danger, humiliation and certain dead. A white or a black dead, where's the difference? 

Black-gloved hands reached slowly but obedient for the mask. Invisible pneumatics hissed softly when its parts sprung forward, moving like the mandibles of a menacing insect. The dark clad figure rose, and in this motion removed the helmet. Rey looked at the pale face of a young man. Handsome in a way, with full lips and dark eyes and framed by almost shoulder-length black hair. He watched her intently. It was meant to intimidate, Rey was certain—but it appeared as if he expected an approval of sorts for his revelation. That man-child! Rey laughed, a short caustic outburst: "Better put it back on." 

He loomed over her, about to charge, but then slammed the helmet into a shallow bowl full of black gravel and stormed from the interrogation cell. 

The abrupt drain of fear and insecurity left Rey reeling. Had that been... his angst she had felt the whole time? For a moment she heard all the unasked questions about the droid which were gone with her capturer, all the different outcomes of the interrogation were laid out before her—then there was only the image of the dark warrior's pained, pale face and a deep-seated satisfaction she had bend him to her will. Rey suddenly was acutely aware of another person in the room: "You will remove these restraints... and leave this cell with the door open." 

The white-clad form of a stormtrooper appeared at her side: "What did you say?" 

"You will remove these restraints and leave this cell with the door open." Anger about this soldier's tardiness to follow an order tainted her voice with urgency. She sounded hoarse. 

"I'll tighten those restraints... scavenger scum." The stormtrooper didn't even bother to check if she still was secured properly to the metal rack. 

Rey's wandering gaze fell on the black mask in the shallow bowl of gravel. From this dark stuff seemed to ooze anguish and desperation, like cold fumes from a burned-out pyre. This here wasn't a place she belonged to, and she would walk out of it: "You will remove these restraints... and leave this cell with the door open." 

"I will remove these restraints and leave the cell with the door open." This time the stormtrooper didn't challenge her much more confidently and calmly uttered order. 

Listening to the vanishing steps Rey added: "And you'll drop your weapon." 

"And I'll drop my weapon." There was a light thud on the floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All dialogue is taken directly form the movie.


	5. Starkiller Base Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here now is a scene, which left few things to desire: the climatic swordplay between Finn and Rey and Kylo Ren at the surface of the Starkiller Base while the Resistance, by destruction of the thermal oscillator of the superweapon, caused the planet's final explosion in a runaway nuclear fusion. I should note in advance, that all fights of the sequel trilogy so far (when I publish this chapter, by November 2018, we still lack the last instalment) are pleasantly close to those of the original trilogy. Which means, they look rather artless, and in some instances downright clumsy, compared with the sophisticated ones of the prequel trilogy. But like old Ben Kenobi said, this had been a more civilised age.

The cry was angry, full of pain and the irate refuse to accept defeat. For a moment it was as if she watched herself. Two flames, one red, one blue, battling each other in darkness. A wave of burning pain rolled over her from head to toe when the blue flame extinguished. Struggling to her feet, Rey realised this wasn't Takodana where lush foliage had whispered in the rain when an ancient weapon called out to her. This was Starkiller Base, a rogue planet, sunless and full of dead wood.

There was the call again. Rey extended her hand and the old light sabre hopped into it. She felt how a weaker grip slipped from its handle. Her gaze met Kylo Ren's. He was standing over her fallen friend, his naked, pale face greedy. He could have the light sabre, but in another fashion than he thought—with a yell Rey charged.

The force of her attack drove her adversary away from Finn's prone body. Yet after that initial success it took only a few strikes of the red light sabre and her surge stalled. The trampled snow, the smouldering marks on tree trunks, crimson like Kylo's blade... With a shock Rey realised, she had repeated the fight of her friend with the Knight of Ren down to the initial pose for attack.

His slender, black frame, fast like a furious ghost, became almost indistinguishable from the dark trees. They were in her way, keeping her from swinging the unfamiliar weapon as freely as she was used to employ her quarterstaff. It became better when she managed to retreat into the bald gorge of an outcrop. The carstone was as solid as the sunburnt sand of Jakku, a thought which lifted Rey's spirits considerably.

The respite was only short. When she rolled nimbly out of the upper end of the gorge, snow was biting relentlessly her bare legs and arms. Rey had never expected water could be anything but a soft and welcome liquid. She spun and her azure blade cut a hanging tree in half. Yet the dark forest and a crimson sabre had closed in on her already.

Rey ran. Her light sabre dragged useless over the ground. Her feet slipped on melting snow. The forest floor buckled and bulged toward her. The soil was trying to shake off the dead wood. The moment it cracked open in a fast widening chasm Rey spun once again to confront the dark warrior hunting her.

Kylo Ren's face was only inches from hers over their crossed blades. He could just push and she would be gone. But in the light of the ancient weapons his skin looked flushed, he was exhausted like her. When he spoke, his words came forced, imploring: "You need a teacher. I could show you the ways of the Force."

"The Force?" whispered Rey. Her question wasn't meant for him. His weak voice faded in the powerful tune from the chasm in her back. She closed her eyes to hear it better... Deep in the core of the planet crystals sang of freedom and light while the churning lava devoured all the ingenious underground installations of the First Order. Soon Starkiller Base would become its own primary. Bright and life-spending. A new hope amongst the stars of the galaxy.

Rey opened her eyes. Kylo Ren must have heard the song of the kyber crystals too, must he not? It was the same song their light sabres sang. But his eyes were dull. He knew nothing! With a triumphant yell Rey broke the lock of their blades and danced out of the reach red light sabre. Still clueless he went after her. Her first blow was a sweeping strike, like batting falling leaves. It did cut through fabric and flesh over Kylo's tights though. Her second blow stung his shoulder, mirroring, where she felt Finn had scored before. What could he teach her? Her third strike became a trick, suddenly Rey kicked his chest with her foot, flooring a surprised Knight of Ren.

But still he latched himself onto her. They grappled, and when her light sabre had dragged useless through the snow before, now his was at the brink of becoming extinguished when she forced his sword hand down. Blood was colouring his full lips in a deeper read, the fingers of Kylo's other hand dug desperately into her wrist. With an outburst of effort she freed herself, snuffing his red blade and the beauty of his face in a single arching strike.

The wish to ram her weapon into the overwhelmed adversary at her feet, to nail him to the hull of his creation and close these entreating eyes forever took Rey's breath away. She hesitated, then the dying Starkiller Base took the decision out of her hand—another chasm opened, separating her from Kylo Ren. Trembling Rey fled: "Finn! Finn!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All dialogue is taken directly form the movie.
> 
> As you may notice, I see the Rey of TFA much closer to the Dark Side than to the Light. I mean, Luke must have more reasons to refuse to teach Rey in TLJ than his nephew he fucked up ;)


End file.
